Saudi launches first women’s military wing 

Saudi Arabia launched its first military wing for women in the country’s armed forces this week marking what many believe is another milestone in the ambitious Vision 2030 modernisation programme spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

Opening the job market to Saudi women is seen as a major step towards reforming the highly conservative kingdom. Since the launch of Vision 2030 in 2016, every sector from aviation security to passport controller has started employing female staff.

The news of the launch of the women’s military wing was reported by Reema Bandar Al Saud, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States. “The first women’s wing in Saudi Arabia’s Armed Forces has been inaugurated,” she wrote on tweet.

The First Women’s Wing In Saudi Arabia’s Armed Forces Has Been Inaugurated https://t.co/N2yM5qk18M

— Reema Bandar Al-Saud (@rbalsaud) February 4, 2020

In October last year, Saudi Arabia announced that women in the kingdom will be allowed to serve in the armed forces.

A Saudi magazine reported that the new wing was inaugurated by a number of the kingdom’s senior military officials.

The new wing is said to be part of a larger initiative by Saudi Arabia to integrate women into the armed forces, an effort that has now opened the military to women across the country.

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Saudi Arabian woman can now be recruited as lance corporals, corporals, sergeants and staff sergeants in several branches such as the Royal Saudi Land Forces, Royal Saudi Air Force, Royal Saudi Naval Forces, Royal Saudi Air Defence Forces, Royal Saudi Strategic Missile Force and Armed Forces Medical Services.

More and more Saudi women have been breaking into sectors that were once male-dominated, one recent area being the country’s borders. In fact, it was reported in 2019 that by this year, up to 70 per cent of passport control officers based at key Saudi airports could be women.

The speed of reform in the country, especially in the social area has been somewhat contentious.  Music concerts for example have been slammed as “mass sexual assault festival”, while highly profile sporting events have been dismissed as attempts to sport wash the country’s poor human rights record.